UK · Payroll & compliance
UK Review Kashflow
Should you choose KashFlow Payroll?
Pricing and features reviewed April 2026
KashFlow has served UK small businesses and sole traders since 2005. The accounting software is affordable, the MTD VAT compliance is solid, and for businesses with a handful of employees the bundled payroll removes one subscription from the stack. That is the appeal.
If you already pay for KashFlow, you do not need a separate payroll product.
The problem is what you find when you look beyond the product page. KashFlow’s Trustpilot score stands at 1.4 out of 5 from 162 reviews, with 83% of reviewers giving a single star.
The complaints are specific: bank reconciliations disappearing without explanation, account lockouts taking over a week to resolve, maternity and sick pay calculations producing wrong figures. And the product is actively being wound down.
IRIS Software Group, which acquired KashFlow in 2014, is migrating all payroll customers to its Staffology platform.
If you are a micro-business already deep in the KashFlow ecosystem and your payroll is five employees or fewer with no statutory pay complexity, that bundled value still holds for now.
If you are evaluating payroll software fresh in 2026, you should read the full picture before signing up for a product in transition.
Our verdict on KashFlow Payroll
KashFlow Payroll covers the compliance fundamentals. RTI submissions to HMRC (Real Time Information, the live payroll report HMRC requires on every pay run), auto-enrolment pension processing, employee self-service payslips and P60s: those work.
For a sole trader hiring their first employee or a micro-business running straightforward monthly payroll, the basic functionality is present and the price is reasonable when bundled with the accounting plan.
The problem is the reliability record and the trajectory. The user review data is not ambiguous: 1.4 stars on Trustpilot is not a perception problem, it is a product and support problem.
Specific failures keep appearing across reviews: maternity pay calculations that do not match HMRC rules, year-end reports that accountants cannot use, and customer service that closes tickets without fixing the underlying issue. These are not cosmetic complaints.
Getting a statutory maternity pay calculation wrong has financial and legal consequences for your business.
The migration to Staffology adds a second layer of uncertainty. IRIS is moving KashFlow Payroll customers across to a new platform with a different pricing model: per-payslip billing on a 12-month contract rather than the current per-plan structure.
If you start with KashFlow Payroll today, you are beginning with software that its own parent company is sunsetting.
Our assessment: buy it only if you already run KashFlow accounting, keep payroll to five simple salaried employees, and have not yet hit a support or accuracy problem. Avoid it on any other footing.
For everyone else, the alternatives are more reliable and the risk of getting it wrong is not worth the cost saving.
What is KashFlow Payroll?
KashFlow is a cloud-based accounting platform originally built for UK small businesses and sole traders.
IRIS Software Group acquired it in 2014, and it now sits within IRIS’s broader portfolio of payroll and accounting products under the IRIS KashFlow brand.
The payroll component is not a standalone product in the traditional sense. It is built into KashFlow’s accounting subscription and powered by IRIS’s payroll engine.
Both the Starter plan (£12.50/month) and Business plan (£25.50/month) include payroll for up to five employees.
Additional employees cost £1.35 per head per month. The integration means that payroll journals post directly into the KashFlow accounts ledger without a separate import step. That is the core value proposition.
KashFlow also offers a Managed Payroll service, where IRIS processes your payroll on your behalf. That is a separate service costing approximately £5.00 per employee per month for monthly payroll runs, with a setup fee of £5 per employee (minimum £50).
It is a different product from the self-service payroll module and is worth considering separately if you want to outsource the admin entirely.
Who is KashFlow Payroll best for?
KashFlow Payroll earns its place in only one narrow situation, so the question is whether you sit inside it or just near it.
Existing KashFlow accounting users with fewer than 5 employees. If you already pay for KashFlow’s Business plan and you have one to five employees on straightforward salary arrangements with no statutory pay complexity, the payroll module costs you nothing extra.
The accounting integration removes the reconciliation step after each pay run.
For a business owner who also handles the books, that is a genuine time saving.
Sole traders moving from manual payroll.
If you have previously processed payroll manually or through a spreadsheet and you are starting to use KashFlow for accounting, the bundled payroll gives you a path to automated RTI submissions and pension compliance without introducing a second software product and second login.
Beyond these two cases, the fit weakens quickly. The five-employee cap on both plans means growth adds cost and complexity. The documented support problems become more consequential as payroll volume increases.
And the Staffology migration creates the kind of platform uncertainty that makes a new subscription hard to justify. The rule of thumb: if you are not already inside KashFlow with payroll this simple, neither case applies to you.
Who should avoid KashFlow Payroll?
There are three situations where KashFlow Payroll is the wrong choice, and each one is a hard stop rather than a preference.
Businesses with statutory pay complexity. If you have employees who may go on maternity leave, long-term sick leave, or paternity leave during the year, KashFlow Payroll has a documented record of failing these calculations.
Multiple user reviews identify specific failures in SMP (Statutory Maternity Pay) and SSP (Statutory Sick Pay) calculations.
Getting these wrong means underpayment or overpayment with associated admin to correct it, and potential HMRC penalties if submissions are wrong. This is not the risk you want to carry.
Businesses evaluating payroll software independently from accounting.
- If you use Xero
- QuickBooks
- or FreeAgent for accounting
- or you are comparing payroll tools on their own merits
- KashFlow Payroll does not stand up
Its reliability record puts it behind BrightPay, Xero Payroll, and Sage Payroll on the metrics that matter: user satisfaction, support quality, and payroll accuracy.
You can see where these alternatives land in our UK payroll software comparison.
Growing businesses that will need more than 5 employees. The five-employee cap is a structural constraint.
The moment your headcount grows past five, you are paying £1.35 per additional employee per month on top of your plan cost.
At ten employees that is an extra £6.75 per month. Not catastrophic, but it also means you are paying variable costs for a product that is being discontinued.
Pricing your payroll software for growth on a platform being migrated is unnecessary friction.
KashFlow Payroll pros and cons
- We reviewed KashFlow Payroll against published pricing
- IRIS product documentation
- Trustpilot reviews (162 total
- accessed April 2026)
- G2 ratings
- and third-party payroll software comparisons
Pros:
- Payroll bundled with accounting at no extra cost on both plans, with no separate payroll subscription for existing KashFlow users with up to 5 employees
- HMRC-recognised RTI filing included; payroll submissions happen automatically within each pay run
- Auto-enrolment support covers pension scheme setup, employee assessment, and contribution calculations, a real compliance requirement where manual errors carry cost
- Employee self-service portal for payslips, P60s and P45s, which reduces the admin load at year-end and for leavers
- Cloud-based access from any device, with weekly and monthly payroll frequency both supported
- CIS (Construction Industry Scheme, the rules for deducting tax from subcontractor payments) support included, covering subcontractor deductions, though the same reliability questions apply, so pressure-test it before you rely on it
Cons:
- Trustpilot score of 1.4/5 (83% one-star reviews) reflects systemic issues, not isolated bad experiences: account lockouts, deleted bank reconciliations, and billing errors appear repeatedly
- Maternity pay and sick pay calculations described as unreliable by multiple reviewers, with one noting the product “falls down when trying to calculate maternity pay, sick pay and GP pensions”
- Cannot produce year-end reports in a format accountants can use, a documented limitation for businesses that rely on an external accountant at tax time
- No automated tax filing or direct deposit (Bacs integration): these are standard features on Xero Payroll and BrightPay
- No API access on the payroll module, limiting integration with HR or finance tools beyond the KashFlow accounting ledger
- Product is being migrated to Staffology, with a new per-payslip pricing model and 12-month contract commitment, a structural change for any business building workflows around the current product
- Support quality is the most consistent complaint: tickets closed without resolution, no live phone support, and response times described as taking over a week for account access issues
Whichapp view
A 1.4-star Trustpilot rating with 83% one-star reviews is not a sample size problem. That is 135 customers in 162 saying the product failed them in a specific way.
For payroll software, the failures described are the worst kind: wrong statutory pay calculations and no route to get them corrected quickly.
The KashFlow name still carries some weight among accountants familiar with the pre-IRIS product. The current product has not maintained that reputation.
If your accountant recommends it, it is worth asking whether they have used it recently for clients with payroll complexity.
KashFlow Payroll pricing: what does it actually cost?
Payroll is included in both KashFlow accounting plans. There is no separate payroll-only subscription tier.
KashFlow Starter plan with payroll
£12.50/month plus VAT (currently £1.25/month for the first six months on the introductory offer). Covers payroll for up to 5 employees.
Single user, 10 invoices per month, 25 bank transactions per month.
The introductory pricing matters because the Year 1 cost looks extremely low before the full rate applies, a pattern worth flagging if you are comparing annual costs.
KashFlow's own pricing page advertises up to 90% off for the first six months, so treat that headline figure as a promotional rate rather than the standing price. Budget for the full plan cost from month seven, and weigh the Year 1 saving against the migration and reliability questions covered below. Details last checked: 2026-06-30; primary source: kashflow.com/pricing
KashFlow Business plan with payroll
£25.50/month plus VAT (£2.55/month for the first six months). Covers payroll for up to 5 employees, multi-user access, unlimited invoices and bank transactions, plus multi-currency support.
Annual plans are available at £90/year (Starter) and £165/year (Business), which represent a modest saving against monthly billing.
Additional employees
Beyond 5 employees, the cost is £1.35 per additional employee per month. At 10 employees, that adds £6.75/month on top of your plan cost.
There is no published bulk rate or volume discount for larger headcounts on the self-service product.
KashFlow Managed Payroll pricing
The outsourced payroll service (IRIS processes your payroll on your behalf) costs approximately £5.00 per employee per month for monthly payroll runs, and £3.50 per employee per week for weekly runs.
Setup is £5 per employee with a minimum of £50.
Year-end processing is charged separately. A calculator at kashflow.com/payroll/managed-payroll-calculator provides indicative quotes.
What the managed service buys you on top of the software is people: KashFlow assigns a dedicated account manager and runs the payroll through CIPP-accredited payroll managers, which is the relevant distinction if the self-service module's support record is what is putting you off. The trade-off is variable, quote-led pricing rather than a fixed monthly figure. Details last checked: 2026-06-30; primary source: kashflow.com/payroll/managed-payroll
Is KashFlow Payroll expensive?
For businesses already on the KashFlow accounting subscription, the payroll element is essentially free up to 5 employees: you are not paying a separate payroll cost. That is its strongest pricing argument.
For comparison: BrightPay charges from approximately £85/year for a single employer with unlimited employees, cheaper than KashFlow’s annual plans if you only need payroll.
Xero Payroll is bundled into Xero’s accounting plans from £33/month, covering unlimited employees but at a higher accounting platform cost.
If you are choosing between KashFlow and Xero purely on payroll, the five-employee cap decides it before price ever enters the conversation.
KashFlow Payroll features: what is included?
KashFlow Payroll covers the statutory compliance layer that UK employers legally require. The question is how reliably it handles edge cases.
PAYE and RTI
Automatic PAYE calculations and RTI submissions to HMRC are included. The Full Payment Submission (FPS) is filed each pay run and the Employer Payment Summary (EPS) is handled for months where no employees are paid. For straightforward salaried employees, this works.
The RTI infrastructure is HMRC-recognised.
Auto-enrolment
KashFlow Payroll includes end-to-end auto-enrolment support: a pension scheme setup wizard, employee eligibility assessment within each pay run, contribution calculations, and automatic letters to employees.
This is a genuine compliance requirement for every UK employer and it is handled without needing a separate pension integration tool.
CIS support
CIS deductions for subcontractors are supported, including the CIS monthly return.
For construction businesses or contractors making payments to subcontractors, this is a meaningful feature that not every small-business payroll tool handles well.
If CIS is a significant part of your payroll, run a full subcontractor pay cycle and the monthly CIS return in the free trial before you commit, given the broader reliability questions we have raised.
Employee self-service
Employees can access payslips, P60s and P45s through a self-service portal. This reduces the admin load at year-end, when leavers request their P45, or when employees need payslips for mortgage or rental applications.
It is a standard feature on most modern payroll software, so its presence is a baseline, not a selling point.
Statutory pay calculations
This is where the reliability concerns are most acute.
- Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)
- Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
- Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP)
- and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) are all legally required calculations
Multiple user reviews specifically describe KashFlow Payroll producing incorrect SMP figures and being unable to handle GP pension schemes correctly.
We cannot independently verify the frequency of these errors, but the pattern across unrelated reviewers suggests a real gap in the product’s handling of statutory pay edge cases.
If any employees may go on maternity or long-term sick leave during the year, this is the feature to pressure-test in your free trial before committing.
Is KashFlow Payroll trustworthy?
Trust signals in payroll software matter more than in most software categories because payroll errors create legal and financial liability for your business, not for the software vendor.
Getting an employee’s National Insurance wrong costs you money and HMRC interest.
Failing an auto-enrolment contribution attracts a fine. A statutory pay error triggers a right to claim from the employee.
Review platform evidence
KashFlow’s Trustpilot rating of 1.4/5 from 162 reviews (accessed April 2026) is significantly worse than its UK payroll competitors.
For reference, Xero sits at 4.3/5 from over 5,700 reviews. The themes in the KashFlow negative reviews are consistent and specific rather than vague dissatisfaction: account lockouts, deleted data, billing errors, and support teams closing tickets without resolution.
Capterra and G2 show limited review volumes for the payroll module specifically, which we have not weighted heavily in our analysis.
User review data
KashFlow Trustpilot breakdown, April 2026
162 total reviews. 1-star: 134 reviews (83%). 5-star: 13 reviews (8%). 4-star: 3 reviews (2%). Overall score: 1.4/5.
Recurring themes in 1-star reviews: account lockouts (multiple users report over a week to regain access), bank reconciliation data deleted without notice, double-billing after cancellations, maternity pay calculation errors, and support tickets closed without resolution.
HMRC compliance
KashFlow Payroll is HMRC-recognised for RTI, which means HMRC has validated that the software can submit payroll data in the correct format. This is a base-level credential shared by all credible UK payroll software.
Recognition does not guarantee that every calculation in the software is correct. It confirms the submission mechanism meets HMRC’s technical standards.
The Staffology migration
IRIS is migrating KashFlow Payroll customers to Staffology, its newer cloud payroll platform. The migration is data-assisted (pay elements transfer automatically; deductions require manual setup).
The new pricing model uses per-payslip billing on a 12-month contract billed monthly in arrears, a structural change from the current subscription model.
IRIS recommends running the two systems in parallel for at least one pay period after migration.
For existing KashFlow Payroll customers, the migration is an operational project with real administrative overhead.
For new buyers, starting with a product that its own vendor is sunsetting is a risk with no obvious upside when alternatives like BrightPay and Xero Payroll are stable, well-supported products.
KashFlow Payroll alternatives
We reviewed KashFlow against the most comparable UK payroll options. The switching logic depends on why you are reconsidering KashFlow or what prompted you to look at it in the first place.
KashFlow Payroll vs BrightPay
For standalone payroll quality: BrightPay. BrightPay consistently scores high on user satisfaction, significantly higher than KashFlow across every review platform.
It handles statutory pay calculations reliably, is updated each tax year, and has a 60-day free trial.
The trade-off is that it is a separate product from your accounting software, so you would need to manage payroll and accounting separately unless you are using a BrightPay-compatible accounting integration. Annual pricing from approximately £85 per employer, unlimited employees.
See our full BrightPay review for the detail.
KashFlow Payroll vs Xero Payroll
For accounting plus payroll in one place: Xero. If you want the accounting-payroll integration that makes KashFlow attractive but without the reliability problems, Xero Payroll is the comparable product.
Payroll is bundled into Xero’s accounting plans from £33/month, with no employee cap.
The Xero payroll module handles auto-enrolment, RTI, and statutory pay more reliably than KashFlow, and Xero’s 4.3/5 Trustpilot score reflects a meaningfully better support and product experience. The higher monthly cost compared to KashFlow’s Starter plan is real.
You need to decide whether the reliability differential is worth it for your business.
Read our Xero Payroll review for a full comparison.
KashFlow Payroll vs Sage Payroll
For a proven HMRC-compliant product with UK accountant network support: Sage. Sage Payroll has its own weaknesses: a dated interface, renewal pricing surprises, and a product that can feel slow for modern workflows.
But the compliance record is solid and the RTI implementation is battle-tested across multiple HMRC system changes.
If your accountant uses Sage and recommends it for payroll, that familiarity reduces friction significantly. Sage Business Cloud Payroll starts at £10/month for up to 5 employees.
Our Sage payroll review covers the full pricing and feature breakdown.
KashFlow Payroll vs Staffology
If you are a current KashFlow Payroll user being migrated: assess Staffology on its own merits before accepting the default migration.
Staffology is a more capable platform with API integrations, scalability beyond micro-business sizes, and a stronger feature set for CIS and umbrella companies.
The pricing model change (per-payslip on a 12-month contract) means your costs will likely look different post-migration. A migration is IRIS choosing the cheapest path for IRIS, not a verdict that Staffology is the best fit for your business.
It is worth comparing Staffology against BrightPay and Xero before committing to the migration path.
Is KashFlow Payroll worth it in 2026?
The honest answer is narrow: yes for a specific type of existing customer, no for almost everyone else.
If you already use KashFlow accounting, have fewer than 5 employees on simple salary arrangements, have never hit a statutory pay edge case, and are prepared to manage the eventual migration to Staffology, the bundled payroll still offers real value for the next 12 months.
You are not paying extra for it, and the basic RTI and auto-enrolment compliance holds up.
If you are starting fresh, the case for KashFlow Payroll does not hold together. The trust signals are too weak, the product is in transition, and BrightPay and Xero Payroll both offer more reliable payroll for comparable or lower effective cost.
You can see how they stack up in our small business payroll guide.
The cleanest version of the buying decision: if KashFlow accounting is already in your stack and payroll is simple, stay and manage the migration when it comes.
If either of those conditions is not true, look elsewhere before the free trial expires.
See our ranked shortlist of providers, scored for HMRC submission reliability, statutory-pay handling, and pricing transparency. Updated for 2026.
View the shortlist →KashFlow Payroll FAQs
Frequently asked questions
How much does KashFlow Payroll cost?
Payroll is included in both KashFlow accounting plans at no additional payroll-specific charge for up to 5 employees. The Starter plan is £12.50/month plus VAT and the Business plan is £25.50/month plus VAT.
Additional employees beyond 5 cost £1.35 per employee per month.
Annual plans are available at £90/year (Starter) and £165/year (Business). A 90% introductory discount applies for the first six months, making the Year 1 cost very low before the full rate applies.
KashFlow also offers a Managed Payroll service at approximately £5.00 per employee per month for monthly payroll outsourcing.
What are the main disadvantages of KashFlow Payroll?
The most significant issues are: a 1.4/5 Trustpilot rating from 162 reviews, documented problems with statutory pay calculations (maternity pay and sick pay in particular), inability to produce year-end accountant reports, no automated tax filing or direct deposit, and the product being migrated to Staffology on a new per-payslip pricing model.
Support quality is consistently the most-cited complaint, with users reporting tickets closed without resolution and access issues taking over a week to fix.
Is KashFlow Payroll being discontinued?
Not discontinued in the sense of being immediately switched off, but IRIS Software Group (which owns KashFlow) is actively migrating all KashFlow Payroll customers to its Staffology platform.
Customers receive migration communications approximately 4 months before their renewal date.
The migration changes the pricing model from the current subscription to a per-payslip billing structure on a 12-month contract.
New buyers starting with KashFlow Payroll in 2026 should factor this migration into their decision.
Is KashFlow Payroll HMRC-approved?
Yes. KashFlow Payroll is HMRC-recognised for RTI submissions, which means it has been validated for submitting Full Payment Submissions (FPS) and Employer Payment Summaries (EPS) in the correct format.
HMRC recognition confirms the submission mechanism meets technical standards: it does not guarantee every payroll calculation is correct. It is also listed by HMRC as supporting auto-enrolment and CIS.
Which is better: KashFlow Payroll or BrightPay?
BrightPay is the stronger payroll product for most UK businesses.
It scores significantly higher on user satisfaction than KashFlow across review platforms, handles statutory pay calculations reliably, and has no employee cap on its per-employer licence model.
KashFlow’s advantage is the accounting integration: payroll posts automatically to the KashFlow accounts ledger, removing a reconciliation step. If you already use KashFlow for accounting and have simple payroll, the bundled approach may suit you.
If payroll quality and support reliability are the priority, BrightPay is the better choice.
Does KashFlow Payroll handle auto-enrolment?
Yes. KashFlow Payroll includes full auto-enrolment support: a pension scheme setup wizard, automated employee eligibility assessment within each payroll run, contribution calculations, and automatic employee communications.
This covers the core legal requirement under the Pensions Act 2008 for UK employers.
The auto-enrolment functionality works within the payroll run rather than as a separate process, which reduces the risk of missing an assessment cycle.
For more on what the obligation involves, see our guide to auto-enrolment for UK employers.
How we reviewed KashFlow Payroll
This review is based on:
- KashFlow’
- s published pricing and product documentation (accessed April 2026)
- IRIS migration documentation for the Staffology transition
- Trustpilot reviews (162 reviews
- April 2026)
- G2 ratings for the payroll module
- Capterra data
- and third-party payroll software comparisons from Switch On Business and other industry sources
We reviewed the managed payroll pricing calculator and the KashFlow payroll feature pages directly.
We did not conduct first-hand payroll processing tests on KashFlow Payroll and have not independently verified every statutory pay calculation claim in user reviews.
The review reflects published evidence and user-reported experience from the sources listed above.
Whichapp is an independent comparison site. We do not have a commercial relationship with KashFlow or IRIS Software Group. Some links on this page use affiliate tracking.
Affiliate relationships do not influence editorial assessments.
For full methodology, see our UK payroll software comparison methodology.